The Debt-to-Equity Ratio is a financial metric that compares a company's total liabilities to its shareholders' equity. It helps investors understand how much debt a company is using to finance its operations relative to the money invested by its owners. A higher ratio indicates more debt, which can imply higher risk, while a lower ratio suggests a more conservative approach to financing. This ratio is calculated by dividing total liabilities by total equity. For example, if a company has $500,000 in debt and $250,000 in equity, its Debt-to-Equity Ratio would be 2.0. This means the company has two dollars of debt for every dollar of equity.